Panoramic images, or panoramas, can provide a more immersive viewing experience by providing a wider field of view, or aspect ratio, than standard images. Conventional panoramic images can be captured with special wide-angle or panoramic lenses. However, panoramic images may also be created by assembling or “stitching” together contiguous images taken from standard lenses. The proliferation of consumer image capture devices (e.g., digital cameras) and recent developments in image processing software have placed the ability to create high-quality panoramic images in the hands of casual photographers. Moreover, image capture devices and software suitable for creating panoramas are becoming common on mobile computing devices (e.g., smartphones and tablets).
Although improvements in image processing technology and processor power have simplified, and in some cases, automated, the assembly of source images into panoramas, the efficient capture of images that are suitable for “stitching” is still an area of development. Source images must meet certain criteria for successful assembly into a panorama. For example, the source images must have sufficient continuity or overlap for stitching. Photographers unaccustomed to creating panoramas may lack the experience or skill necessary for selecting and taking shots resulting in suitable images. Without direction, the casual or amateur photographer may take too many pictures, resulting in wasted time, battery power, and memory space; or worse, too few pictures, resulting in distorted or disjoint panoramic images. Even a skilled photographer attempting to shoot a large panoramic scene may not be able to capture suitable images in time to create the desired panorama before the scene to be captured changes or is lost completely.